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Email a FriendMy dad has often told me that he can do anything as long as he knows it’s going to end. I feel the same way. Of course, I do try to take that a step further and say I can do anything with the grace of God, but being an imperfect person, it’s something I’m still working on.
Ups and Downs
Small sufferings making life better
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Family on Wednesday, March 02, 2011 6:49 PM
As part of training for his new job, my brother had to take a cold-weather survival skills training course.
Among other things, it involved his being outside overnight in single-digit temperatures.
“I have never been so cold and hungry in my life,” he says. He told me about pacing the beach at 2am, trying to keep warm, wanting to quit but having no choice but to keep going and make it through the night.
The upside? Now that the training is over, he’s never been so grateful for the heat in his apartment. Sometimes, he says, he just sits there and appreciates the fact that he is warm.
I told him it reminded me of my first experience with giving birth. Never having been through the pain of labor before, I was floored by how excruciating it was. I remember thinking, as I endured each contraction, that I must be grateful in the future for every moment during which I was *not* in labor.
Months later, I sat in the car one day, trapped in traffic while listening to the baby fuss in the back seat. I wasn’t particularly happy, but it occurred to me: at least I wasn’t in labor! I’d promised myself to be grateful for that, and remembering the pain of labor really did improve that moment for me.
It’s funny how small, finite sufferings can work that way: they’re hard as I go through them, but I think they often end up making my life better by reminding me how much I have to appreciate each day.
This week, for instance, my husband is out of town and my son was sick. On Sunday, the third day of Bryan’s seven-day trip, Blaise was on day five of a fever and grumpy as anything. I was exhausted from holding him constantly and starting to worry a little about him.
His fever disappeared overnight.
The next morning Blaise was his normal happy self again, zooming around the living room at top speed. And I - who’d been dreading my husband’s week-long trip - was grateful just to have my son well again. Suddenly the few remaining days of Bryan’s absence didn’t seem so hard.
Sometimes I think life would be easier without the ups and downs. But sometimes it’s the “downs” that make everyday life seem like one big “up”. I guess that’s their upside.
Comments
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Posted by Claire on Thursday, Mar 3, 2011 12:54 AM (EDT):
So true, Arwen. I had to work fulltime from the time my son was 3 months old until he was 18 months old. There’s a part of me that will never get over the fact that I had to miss so much of his infancy. But the upside is that it makes me really appreciate being home with him now. Since I lived the alternative, I don’t take for granted my ability to be with him almost fulltime. That’s just one of many examples in my life of how the lows have caused a deeper appreciation for the highs.
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